Claim the Promise of Rest

“… the promise of entering His rest still stands …” (Hebrews 4:1)

“But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:7).

For the people of Israel, life in Egypt was one of constant work. The slavery under which they labored wore on them heavily.

Despite the efforts of the Pharaoh and his government, this people kept doing what people were made to do. They were fruitful and they multiplied. The more they were made to work, the more they increased.

The Israelites’ strength and their numbers stirred fear. Murderous policies were devised, and even these failed to succeed. For the Lord watched over His chosen ones.

The real problem for Pharaoh can be found in the early part of Exodus. This statement makes it clear to us: “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).

It was Joseph who preserved this empire from extinction during a grievous famine recorded at the back end of the book of Genesis. This young son of Jacob was blessed by the Lord with the ability to interpret a significant dream for the Pharaoh of his day.

As a result, Egypt, at Joseph’s instruction, prepared for the days of extreme want during a season of plenty. And so the nation survived and became home to the descendants of Abraham, through whom the Lord promised that all the families of the earth would find blessing (see Genesis 12:1-3).

That covenant, made all those centuries ago, remains in effect to this day. Though the Egyptians saw themselves as large and in charge, the nation enslaved still possessed the secret to their future, to the future of the whole earth.

Free Bodies, Free Hearts

God heard the cry of His people and purposed to bring them out of their bondage. He used Moses to lead them. He sent various plagues to demonstrate His sovereign authority over all nations. He exposed the powerlessness of idols.

The Lord revealed how to claim victory over death in the midst of all of these things. What kept death out of the homes in Israel? The Blood of the Passover Lamb applied around the doorways of every dwelling. The sight of the Blood prompted the destroying force to pass by those prepared places and all who rested inside them were safe.

Not long after that Passover night, the people of Israel were free from slavery and on their way to the Homeland that God had for them.

This history of the Hebrews forms significant portions of the letter to the Hebrews. The writer uses stories from the past to point to the problems these people faced in that moment. Their troubles were not new. Rather, their lingering unbelief was a more constant plague.

Through the centuries, God did all that He could to reveal the abiding reality of His rest and His peace, His Sabbath and His Shalom.  The people described in Exodus and the other books of Moses were delivered from Egypt physically. However, a deeper work remained to be done in them.

Free bodies do not mean free hearts.

Free hearts are ones that are at rest. The Hebrew believers of this early time in Christian history struggled as they had always struggled — with seeing and receiving the love of God to the fullest.

The Hebrew believers of this early time in Christian history struggled as they had always struggled--with seeing and receiving the love of God to the fullest. Share on X

After the escape through the Red Sea, the Lord gave Israel His guiding words. His Ten Commandments came to them at Mount Sinai.

These basic rules for life started with three recognitions of the One God of all things, the Lord who is Lord alone. Honor Him as holy and true. Make no idols. Glorify His Name by avoiding vain uses of it.

Commandment 4 is this one: “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.”

For people driven hard as slaves, the whole concept of a day of rest was so, so foreign. The Lord saw the need to codify it in His Law. Even with this regulation, some refused Sabbath rest and paid with their lives.

Workaholics exist and they do great harm. Religious workaholics are the worst because they hide from people the reality of what Christ accomplished in Himself and by Himself.

Finished Forever

The Hebrews epistle addressed some people who, though they had tasted the freedom of believing in Jesus, were more and more becoming busied about the old laws. All of the Law had been fulfilled in the Person of the Son. “For we who have believed enter that rest. …  For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’” (Hebrews 4:4).

Knowing this, the writer encouraged his readers to hear and obey. “Today, if you hear His Voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

The fact is that human beings just can’t keep themselves from trying to get involved where God says they are not allowed. It is part of the pride complex.

We say we can be the god of our own lives. That’s what we think because that’s what the world and its prince and power want us to think. Remember the devil thought this first: “I will be as the Most High” (see Isaiah 14:12-14).

It is when we rest that we are most like God. Hebrews 4:10 tells us this: “For whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.”

The Lord did not need to keep producing to impress Satan. He finished the Creation season and saw that all He had brought into being was good and very good.

And Jesus Christ had nothing left to do once He commended His spirit to the Father from the Cross. He cried out, “It is finished” just before this moment. Next, He bowed His head and “gave up the ghost” as it says in the King James Version of Luke 23:46.

Finished. Done. Completed. Redemption accomplished. The Lamb of God was slain according the Plan fashioned before the foundation of the world, as stated in Revelation 13:8. Think on those words. This means that before He started working things out in time on earth, the Lord had already worked them to the end for eternity in Heaven.

Rest in His Work, His Finished Work.

Forget your labor. Strive to enter the Rest He has for you.

How do we work at being at rest? The answer is to submit ourselves to the Word of God.

Jesus was asked this question: “How shall we work the works of God?” His answer was simple: “Believe on Him Whom He has sent” (see John 6:28-29).

Believe the Bible. And if that proves to be a problem, ask the Holy Spirit for His help. God shall not refuse you.

The Spirit and the Word shall work the work in you so that you may rest in Him. This attitude will get to the bottom of everything about you.

Read and consider:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).